How to Mix Vocals (Part 3)

So basically, the dynamic delays can be super quiet in that first verse, because it’s pretty empty. The reverb in general, you know, can just slowly grow as the instrumentation gets busier and busier, so I would probably just bring it all down verse wise. A little bit more on that first chorus.

The slap delay I think is nice pretty much the whole time, but we’ll just have it creeping in underneath. So it’ll go something like this.

[mix]

Sounds pretty sweet. Let’s bring the delay down a little bit more.

So there you go. There’s some very simple effects that you can put on. This is a pretty simple song with not a lot of production on it.

This is the last chorus right here.

[mix, final chorus]

Some live drums come in there.

[mix]

So maybe we’ll push a little verb in there. Those delays can come up a little bit.

ADVERTISEMENT

We’ve got a double here that I’m bringing in just during the choruses, which will help the choruses lift as well.

[mix]

And harmonies left and right.

So the reality is it’s quite straight forward stuff. The techniques are very simple. It’s really just a case of understanding where the vocal sits, some light compression, EQ, and limiting really helped the vocal sit in this track.

Now obviously, this isn’t a complicated, dense song. It’s got organic instruments in it, and it develops to live drums at the end. So there’s different techniques for different songs. If you’re doing a Dance track or a heavy rock song that has very loud, very less dynamic instruments going on, it would require a little bit more of an aggressive EQ and compression and limiting on the vocal.

Because if the song has a limited dynamic range and it’s just loud the whole time, the vocal will have to feel the same way as well, just to carve out some space for it.

We can do some tracks like that as well, but the basic techniques that we just did there with the EQ, compression, limiting, reverbs, and delays will remain constant. We’ll just get more aggressive with the way you used them. It’s not as complex as we like to think. There’s some very simple techniques.

It’s about really keeping a mix open enough to allow the vocal in there. You know, you can apply buss compression and EQ and limiting on the mix at the end to even it out even more.

So there’s lots of different things to learn and to talk about.

So please subscribe to the e-mail list, and I will send you any updates, and please leave me some comments. I’d love to know what you think and I’d love to pick up some tips from you as well. Impart any information they can, or clarify anything in this video that doesn’t make as much sense as it should.